Hood netted five goals and two assists in both contests for the Big Green (6-1, 1-1 Ivy) to bring her weekend point total to 12. In the contest against Brown (1-5, 0-2 Ivy), Hood earned her second hat-trick of the season with three goals from penalty corners.
"The 6-1 start has given us a good feeling of confidence, but we have not allowed our record to get to us and cause us to be cocky," co-captain Virginia Peisch '11 said. "I think a glimpse of that showed Saturday when we felt a little too comfortable against Brown, but we've done a good job of staying confident and taking our opponents seriously."
Currently, Hood is only eight goals shy of breaking the single-season record currently held by Kim Jenkins '02. She also will have the chance to break her own record of 42 points in a season. With 12 assists, Peisch is on pace to break her own single-season assist record of 16 set in 2008. Peisch's current total of 43 career assists ranks the highest in Dartmouth history.
Statistically, Dartmouth dominated Brown. The Bears, however, managed to keep the game close for the entire day. Despite outshooting Brown 36 to 10, the Big Green never led by more than two goals. Goals by Hood and Maya Herm '13 gave Dartmouth a 2-0 lead going into halftime, but Brown's Tacy Zysk cut the Dartmouth lead in half early in the second period.
Hood connected on her second goal of the day three minutes after the Brown goal to give Dartmouth a little breathing room. Hood's goal was assisted by Peisch and Kelly McHenry '11. Both Peish and McHenry assisted all three of Hood's scores.
"I think that we were bouncing back from a tough loss the previous weekend against Princeton," co-captain Claire Byrne '11 said. "We had just won four games in a row, so the loss was a blow to our confidence. I think when we first came out, we were a little flat, cautious and reserved. We weren't adhering to our game plan as much as we should have."
Brown fought back and managed to score again, but Hood crushed any chance of a comeback with her third goal of the match.
"We didn't play as well as we wanted in the first half and most of the second half, but by the end of it, especially in the last 14 minutes, we really started to click," Byrne said.
The weekend's doubleheader altered Dartmouth's weekly practice preparation.
"Physically, we try to be a little more cautious the week before a doubleheader because it is much more physically taxing on the body to play two games back to back," Peisch said. "I think we spent most of our preparation focusing on Brown because it was an Ivy League game and it was the game we played first. We used Sunday morning to prepare for Holy Cross, which might seem short noticed, but it worked fine because the pointers that the coaches gave us were fresh in our minds."
The Big Green used the momentum gained from the win against Brown to dominate the Crusaders (0-8, 0-0 Patriot) from the beginning of the game. Byrne scored the first goal in less than three minutes.
"Sunday's game was played at a much higher energy level," Peisch said. "We had a video session the morning before our game, and our coaches provided a lot of constructive criticism that really helped the team. We had concrete examples of what we did poorly on Saturday, and we were able to correct most of it. It helped us have our first shutout of the year."
For the second game in a row, Dartmouth outshot its opponent this time by a staggering 29 attempts. Four different Dartmouth players scored a goal in the offensive outing, including Maggie Scanlon '14 who netted her first collegiate goal at 42:52 into the contest. Meagan Vakiener '12 finished the day with four saves.
This year's 6-1 record is the best start of the past decade for the Big Green.
"Us seniors have never experienced a start like this before," Byrne said.
Dartmouth returns to Chase Field next Saturday for its second consecutive home doubleheader. The Big Green will play Ivy League opponent University of Pennsylvania at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, then square off against the University of Maine the following day at 2:00 p.m.
